No coach in college basketball feeds more talent to the NBA than the University of Kentucky’s John Calipari. And considering his 2014-2015 Wildcats might be the most talented team he’s ever assembled, it only makes sense he’d add fuel to his recruiting cache. According to a report, Calipari is assembling a two-day scouting combine on the Kentucky campus for league personnel to evaluate his star-studded roster.
The news is courtesy of Yahoo Sports Adrian Wojnarowski. Though the unprecedented event is obviously a boon for the prospects playing for Kentucky and NBA talent evaluators, that’s mostly window dressing. As Wojnarowski and an unnamed league source indicate, the combine will serve as a recruiting extravaganza for Calipari.
University of Kentucky coach John Calipari is finalizing plans for an unprecedented two-day campus scouting combine for NBA executives to evaluate his star-laden roster of professional prospects, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Calipari has invited officials of the 30 NBA teams to send personnel to Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 11-12 to watch his players do everything from run full-court five-on-five and NBA-style pick-and-roll sets to individual skill work.
The event is a chance for Calipari to impress a throng of top high school recruits on campus visits and once again frame his program as college basketball’s best NBA feeder system. Kentucky is expected to be a consensus preseason No. 1 in the polls…
As one executive laughed, “We’re just there as B-roll for his recruiting videos.”
According to DraftExpress, Kentucky boasts a whopping nine of the top 43 players for the 2015 draft. Freshman Karl Towns and junior Willie Cauley-Stein – who will be competing for playing time with fellow prospects Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, Trey Lyles, and Alex Poythress in a ridiculously loaded Wildcasts frontcourt – are projected top 10 picks. DraftExpress ranks 2014 NCAA Tournament heroes Andrew and Aaron Harrison as the 28th and 33rd best prospects in the 2015 class.
In addition to enjoying unparalleled on-court success, Calipari has outdone other college coaches on draft night, too. Since 2008, he’s helped guide the likes of Derrick Rose, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, and Anthony Davis to NBA stardom. In addition to that esteemed quintet, Calipari has produced 17 first-rounders in the last seven years – two per-draft on average.
And given Calipari’s remarkably gifted team and massive recruiting influence of this scouting combine, that mind-blowing number could grow even bigger in coming years.
What do you think?
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